August 2022 – Narrowboat Firecrest

Hampton Court Palace

When your next door neighbour is Henry VIII’s pleasure palace, it would be wrong not to take advantage. We decided to treat ourselves to a years membership of the Historic Royal Palaces trust which allows unlimited visits to Hampton Court, plus 4 other royal abodes.

The Lord Chancellor, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, (born in Ipswich, rose to prominence as a catholic priest serving Henry VIII, died of natural causes on his way to face charges of treason after the fiasco around the annulment of Henry’s first marriage to Catherine of Aragon.) Wolsey began the building up of Hampton Court for his own purposes in the early 1500’s but Henry took a liking to it and by 1530, it became one of his homes, showcasing his wealth and power.

Everything is on a grand scale

and my photography doesn’t do any justice to the inside of beautiful old buildings Hence me borrowing this photo of the Grand Hall and its 500 year old tapestries from the HRP trust web pages.

The Grand Hall (from HRP story of Hampton Court)

These priceless tapestries depict the story of Abraham as Henry tried to affiliate himself with good biblical teaching. They would have travelled with Henry as he moved his “court” to various other palaces around the country. But Henry did love the lavish lifestyle and this was where he chose to spend a lot of time, entertaining and showing off. The palace continued to be a royal residence long after Henry and his six wives had lived there.

And if you look over the fence, theres Firecrest.

Shakespeare performed many of his plays for Elizabeth I and James I in the 1600s. During the Georgian era in the 1700s Sir Christopher Wren was commissioned to revamp the palace and thankfully instead of tearing down the old Tudor buildings he added the little extention that we can see through the gates from our mooring.

No money was spared with the decor, and Hampton Court is likened to the palace of Versailles

But grand though the insides were, I do love wandering around the gardens

Hampton Court is famous for its maze, but we didn’t fancy competing with hordes of little kids getting lost. Instead we enjoyed searching for all the amazing characters made out of willow weaving that were lost amongst the flower beds

But thankfully the war of the Roses was done and dusted before Henry VIII came to the throne

Hampton court fell out of favour as a royal residence in the 18th C. Many of the rooms became Grace and Favour apartments for the aristocracy if they had fallen upon hard times and had served the monarchy well. This continued until the 1980s. It was Queen Victoria who first opened up the Court to the general public to stroll around.

Whilst I have barely scratched the surface of what we saw, having HRP trust membership definitely paid for itself as we both popped in and out several times to enjoy different aspects of the palace during our 5 day stay.

Standing on Hampton Court Bridge looking at Firecrest moored (on the right of the photo)

https://www.hrp.org.uk/hampton-court-palace/#gs.a0czva

On our way from the Wey

After three weeks on the Wey, it was time for us to push off from Thames Lock.

Farewell beautiful River Wey, We’re sure we will come back

And rejoin the big river Thames.

past some pretty impressive houseboats

And some …. well …. some in need of a bit of a declutter

And some that were for sale… if you have a spare £1.8 million. But it is Edwardian, has 5 bedrooms and has an extremely large plot, but not even the temptation of a large workshop could persuade Eric to buy it for me, as it is “… in need of restoration ”

So we sailed on, aiming for the Electric charging point at Molesey lock. We had followed the guidance and emailed 48 hours in advance to request a booked mooring, but hadn’t received a reply. So it didn’t come as much of a surprise when the lockie laughed and told us it was broken…. but we didn’t laugh back when he told us it had been broken for over two years. And to be quite honest we were hot, tired and low on power so pretty “cheesed“ off that, after 2 years, it was still listed on the website as available. Perhaps Molesey’s topiary was quite appropriate.

Reverting to plan B, we continued on under Hampton Court Bridge

Just one of the Hampton Court bridge arches

And 5 minutes later we moored up on the Hampton Court visitor moorings

The charging fee was a bit confusing, all boats have to register on arrival, but the first night is free, the second night is £16 for a 60’boat, or £8 for a shorter boat, then I got very confused and had to phone up. In the end we paid £32 for 5 nights, which we consider pretty good value considering, we were sitting outside Hampton Court Palace’s back gates. No electricy but plenty of sunshine

And as Eric spent his teenage years in this area, we had a lot of friends and more family to catch up with.

And to our amusement we received an email about our electric point booking request at Molesey lock.. no apology, just an “I understand the lock keeper has explained the situation” to which I responded by acknowledging that we understand things break down…. but if its been out of action for two years, WHY is it still listed as a facility, and please treat this as a complaint…. to which I am pleased to say, has been acted upon and after a few emails, the website has been updated.

Visited on the Wey at Wisley

There have been so many highlights during this years cruising, its been hard to keep up with our adventures. Many years ago, we lived in Surrey and had membership to the Royal Horticultural Society, Wisley. So when we realised we could moor only 30 minutes walk away, we leapt at the chance to visit. And also to meet up with our family to relive some of the happy memories of mum and dad who used to come here most weekends. Wisley is full of iconic vistas which will be very familiar to people who visit often.

But its not a garden that stands still in time. So much had changed since our last visit. They are currently digging a huge new reservoir which will be disguised as a “lake” to help them manage that most precious of resources. And as Eric is from a family of engineers , this was worth a close inspection.

It just looks like a giant sand pit to me

And despite the general current shortage of rain, the gardens have been maintained and the borders are spectacular.

And much to my amazement, the big glass house was pleasantly cool to walk around even though it looked like a dessert

and we spent some time chatting in there, and wondering what they had done with the old orchid house that we all remembered

Its not really orchid season, but still some in flower in their new tropical home

And it wasn’t all cactus

Once we left the glass houses we were treated to a walk through the South African velt

The Heather garden had only just been planted 30 years ago and at the time it looked, quite frankly, boring, but not any more, although there’s not too many family gardens that are big enough to copy this in its entirety.

One of the places Mum and Dad used to love spending time (besides the cafe) was the rockery

Which again is on such a scale that you couldn’t transplant it all into the average garden, but when Eric and I moved to Suffolk, and attempted a bit of landscaping in our new garden, we took a lot of inspiration from the Wisley rockery.

One of the things I miss in our boat home is not having a garden to grow vegetables so we were fascinated by the concepts being researched at Wisley in their “veg plot”. They are currently trialling a “no dig” policy for their veg, and these two comparison plots showed just how beneficial it can be to avoid digging. Mind you I think the benefit is enhanced by the amount of good quality mulch applied each year.

Identical planting, but the top bed has been dug and the lower one has been mulched

But as all the gardeners world presenters remind us gardens aren’t just for working in, relaxing with friends is just as important. Not only did we enjoy a day on our own, and a day with family. We were also treated to a surprise visit from our good friends from Suffolk

And a day with one of Eric’s work colleagues and his family

Wisley isnt the cheapest garden to visit as a one off, but it offers exceptionally good value membership deals, which give access to several other RHS gardens and partner gardens. And as Wisley covers such a huge site, its definitely worth breaking a visit into 2 or more days to be able to appreciate it all.

But as I frequently remind Eric, you can never see too many roses.

And what’s more the mooring is next to the Anchor pub who did very good wood fired pizza.

We werent the only ones who enjoyed visiting Wisley our friends and family did too, and we even got the youngsters to help out with the locks when we took them for a mini cruise

I think thats next years holiday idea sorted

apologies for the number of photos today, this is only a fraction of what we took.

Visiting the River Wey

The River Wey Navigation is a magical part of Surrey. As a visitor, you leave the wide and busy River Thames at Shepperton and enter a cool quiet haven of peace and tranquillity.

But nearly 400 years ago, it was quite a different matter. Sir Richard Weston realised that the meandering backwater could be made navigable (and profitable) by adding canal sections to straighten it out a bit. The River Wey became a “navigation” in 1653. It was a mini motorway in its own right, over a 100 years before the Canal Mania swept through the country. Entrepreneurs took advantage of being able to transport their goods more quickly and reliably by barge. Flour, corn, wood and gunpowder went to London and on the return, coal was sent for use in making the gunpowder. In the late 17th century 4000 trips were made carrying timber to help rebuild London after the Great Fire of 1666. The River Wey is now managed by the National Trust and there are some interesting wiki pages that talk about its history. A lot of the old mill buildings are still standing, although mostly converted into rather nice homes.

We joined the Wey at Thames Lock, where we paid our 3 week fee of £105.30 (with discount for being NT members) and were lent a specific sized windlass to work the 17 locks, on the 20 navigable miles up to Godalming.

Most but not all of the locks were in excellent condition,

We also came across a very rare turf sided lock, (as opposed to the usually seen stone built locks) the Walsham Gates are now a flood lock so are generally left open.

One of the nice things about the Wey is that you always leave the gates open as the boat exits a lock. Which makes double locks a lot easier.

Although at Millmead lock in Guildford, there’s no shortage of willing helpers. We managed to arrive in Guildford just as the temperatures were threatening to top 40° so although we had a brief trip up the beautiful High Street, we didnt linger.

As the temperatures soared, by far the best place to be was on the water.

One of our favourite mooring spots was on the meadow near Newark Lock and Ripley. We were kept entertained by the youngsters paddle boarding, and it didn’t take me long to pluck up the courage to ask to borrow one for a go. If we cruised here regularly, I would definitely be hankering after my own board. Its good fun. There was lots of entertainment to be enjoyed on the Wey, we were never short of people to watch, and more than once we were the ones being watched

In our opinion we were enjoying a perfect holiday existance, warm and relaxed, so I got to spend a lot of time sitting ourside spinning, and chatting to the many people who stopped to enquire what I was doing.

This is my idea of a real treat, being able to sit outside and spin

the evenings were balmy, with some beautiful sunsets

And the mornings equally etherial

Not all of it entirely peaceful as the M25 follows the route for a mile around Byfleet.

but most of the time we felt as if we had been supplanted into a Constable painting

From Windsor to Wey via America

We spent our final night in Windsor on the Baths Island electric charging point, which is exceptionally good value, £10 to moor plus £5 for the electric.

And I make no apology for sharing more photos of the amazing views of Windsor castle when we set off. After Romney Lock the river skirts the royal estate with strict warnings not to even think about stepping foot on the hallowed turf

One of the smaller castle cottages, keeping watch to make sure we dont set foot on Home Park

But it didn’t stop us getting out our long lens’ to enjoy another side of her Majesty’s home

Windsor castle from the river near Datchet

The river seems to have changed again, its wider, the cruisers are huge, and we are seeing more and more residential moorings, many that appear to be in fabulous old river barges.

We couldnt find out any details but this is possibly a dutch sailing barge, over 100 years old

We moored up for the night at Runnymede.

It had been such a hot day we didnt go exploring until the early evening which meant we missed the visitor centre, (and icecream seller)

The Magna Carta, the document that still enshrines Justice into, not only our own legal system but many countries around the world have followed our example.

but we got to wander around some of the monuments and installations

I particularly liked “the Jurors” a series of decorated chairs representing the concepts of law and the struggles to gain freedoms and equalities. I like accessible art that is free to be enjoyed by all and thought provoking to those who want to look more deeply.

Having pondered the impact of the Magna Carta and its worldwide impact, we then found ourselves ascending a path known as the Steps of Individuality, only to realise we had also stepped over onto American Soil, as this “English Acre” was given to to America for the UK Kennedy memorial. (Thats one for the pub quiz)

The steps of individuality leading tothe Kennedy memorial

“The memorial is entered from the flat, but often wet, meads of Runnymede through a gate. Once a visitor, who is assumed to be a ‘pilgrim,’ passes through this gate he or she steps onto American soil and into the allegory of life, death and spirit.
The gate gives access to a pathway of 60,000 individual axe-hewn Portuguese granite setts, which rise steeply through the surrounding woodland. There are 50 steps in all, each representing an individual state in the USA. The setts can also be seen to represent a multitude of pilgrims on their progress through life to enlightenment. Each step is unique and each sett has been laid at random. The craftsmen were unable to comprehend the need for individuality, and could only complete their task when the steps were likened to the uneven appearance of a crowd at a football match.” Copied from the info board

We continued our journey back on English water, looking out for one of the very few statues of our Queen Elizabeth, but whilst she and her loyal subject might have had a good view of us cruising past, with the sun directly behind her we couldn’t see much

We had a few move overnight stops on the Thames before we reached another significant point in our journey, the confluence of the River Wey joining the River Thames.

And through Thames lock(which is on the Wey) to pay our fee to the National trust allowing us 3 weeks cruising on the Wey

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